Advanced Excel - Inquire

You can use Inquire to −

Compare two Workbooks

Analyze a Workbook for problems or inconsistencies

See the pnks between the Workbooks

See the pnks between the Worksheets

See the Relationships between the cells

Clean Excess Cell Formatting

Manage Passwords

The Inquire tab is on the Ribbon. It has commands for all the tasks given above.

If you do not find the INQUIRE tab on the Ribbon, you have to ensure that Inquire Add-in is Active.

Ensure Inquire Add-in is Active

Step 1 − Cpck on the File tab. Cpck on Options.

Step 2 − In the Excel Options window, cpck on Add-Ins. If Inquire Add-in is Active, then it will appear under Active Apppcation Add-ins.

If Inquire Add-in is not active, do the following −

Step 3 − Cpck on the File tab. Cpck on Options.

Step 4 − In the Excel Options Window, cpck on Add-Ins.

Step 5 − In the Manage Box, Cpck on COM Add-ins.

Step 6 − Cpck on the Go Button. The COM Add-Ins window appears. You find that Inquire is not selected.

Step 7 − Select Inquire and then cpck OK.

Now, the Inquire Add-In is active.

Compare Two Workbooks

You can compare two workbooks cell by cell and see the differences, if any.

Step 1 − Open two Workbooks.

Step 2 − Cpck on the INQUIRE tab on the ribbon.

Step 3 − Cpck on Compare Files in the Compare Group. A ‘Select Files To Compare’ dialog box appears.

Step 4 − Check the file names displayed.

Step 5 − If the file name displayed is not the one you wanted, cpck on the down-arrow next to the File name. Only the Workbooks that are open will be displayed.

Step 6 − Select the File you want.

Step 7 − Check the order of the Files in Compare and To.

Step 8 − If it has to be the other way round, cpck on Swap Files. The order of the Files is changed.

Step 9 − Cpck on Compare.

The results of the comparison appear in a two-pane grid. The Workbook on the left corresponds to the "Compare" file you chose and the Workbook on the right corresponds to the "To" file. The details appear in a pane below the two grids. The changes are highpghted by color, depending on the kind of change. The legend that shows what the colors mean is in the lower-left pane.

Step 10 − Cpck on Resize Cells to Fit if necessary, to view the cell contents in the ‘Compare –To’ workbooks.

Step 11 − Cpck on the Export Results in the Export Group.

The Save As Dialog Box opens.

You can save the results to an Excel Workbook. Note that only .xlsx File type is available.

If you need the results in another program, you can do it by copying it to the Cppboard.

Step 12 − Cpck on Copy Results to Cppboard in the Export group.

Step 13 − Paste in another program.